The women were in 2012 convicted of hooliganism and sentenced to two years in prison colonies after staging their so-called "punk prayer" in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow.

They were released in December last year under a Kremlin-backed amnesty.

The stunt came just ahead of Mr Putin's re-election to the Kremlin in March 2012 and was aimed at denouncing the Orthodox Church's support of the Russian strongman during the campaign.

Their jailing turned them from little-known feminist punks who staged a handful of guerrilla performances in Moscow to the stars of a global cause celebre symbolising the repression of civil dissent under Putin's rule.